History begins in the family...

International youth project

International youth project "History begins in the family..."

Since 2015 Foundations for Freedom INGO, the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oświęcim/Auschwitz and Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation/Bergen-Belsen Memorial have been implementing the international youth project “History begins in the family…”.

The family and family relations play a crucial role in our lives.Families unite different generations and share various stories and memories.

The project sets several learning aims:

Learning more about the background in Poland, Germany, Ukraine through our families memories, and to understand how it has been formed.

Getting to know/see our family history in the wider context of other family stories from Ukraine, Poland, Germany.

Learning lessons of the past in order to connect unhealed past to the present and/or future, understanding reason-consequence link.

Learning both about family history as a value, and the family as a value in a wider understanding.

During this project young people deal with the theme of family and history. The centre of attention is the memory of the time before, during and after the Second World War, in particular the mass crimes of the National Socialist regime. The topic of the family and history is intended to be viewed from two perspectives - families in the history, and stories about history and memory within the family.

During the encounters in Ukraine, Poland and Germany participants will visit memorial places in Lviv, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (former concentration and extermination camp), as well as Bergen-Belsen Memorial (former concentration camp and camp for prisoners of war). By dealing with different sources participants will get to know the destinies of families, which suffered from the Nazi extermination and occupation policy in Europe, as well as from the Soviet occupation.

Through discovering different family stories we will see how separate generations in Poland, Germany and Ukraine remember about their past, which similarities and differences appear in each country and between the countries.

The project is cyclic and is based on joint meetings and studies of youth from Poland, Germany and Ukraine. It will also support the development of the democracy ideals at youth and communities, which they originate from, as well as support of promoting the fundamental values of human beings, development of the international cooperation and mutual understanding.

The first project gathered 20 participants from Ukraine, Poland and Germany in 2015-2016.